The Case of the Mystery Option
- To: mathgroup at christensen.cybernetics.net
- Subject: [mg1056] The Case of the Mystery Option
- From: Jack Goldberg <jackgold at math.lsa.umich.edu>
- Date: Fri, 12 May 1995 14:40:46 -0400
Hi Group; In Roman Maeder's excellent book Programming in Mathematica, on page 100 is an example using the option to Transpose. (Up until this moment, I didn't even know there was an option with Transpose, but never mind this.) In essence, Transpose[mat,{1,1}] returns a list of the diagonal entries of the matrix mat. With the exception of this one example, I have never seen an illustration of the use of this option. So I ask you kind souls to answer a few questions for me: (1) Is it true that the 2nd line on page 132 of The Book is a misprint? It says that Transpose[list,n] interchanges the top level with the nth level. (2) From the error messages I have received while experimenting with this option, I have deduced that the option is a permutation. It permutes levels? Is this correct? (3) How does one explain Maeder's example? (4) I guess that besides the Maeder example, the only other uses appears in Tensors? As usual, your help is more than appreciated. Jack